Monkeypox: Japan's health minister says no confirmed cases

Japan's health minister said on Friday that there had been no confirmed cases of monkeypox in Japan.

Shigeyuki Goto made the remarks at a news conference amid concerns over rising numbers of cases of monkeypox infections being confirmed in a number of countries.

Goto told reporters that monkeypox cases legally required reporting if identified in Japan, but that the government had not received any such reports thus far.

The Japanese health minister said that the country had a stockpile of domestically produced smallpox vaccines.